Civilizing Chengdu: Chinese Urban Reform, 1895-1937

356 Pages·2000·24.205 MB·English

by  Kristin Stapleton

Civilizing Chengdu
Chinese Urban Reform, 1895-1937
Kristin Stapleton
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
and distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London, 2000
© 2000 by the President and Fellows ofH arvard College
Copyright returned to author.
Printed in the United States ofA merica
The Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordi
nation with the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Korea Institute, the
Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, and other faculties and institutes, admin
isters research projects designed to further scholarly understanding of China, Japan,
Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries. The Center also sponsors projects ad
dressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stapleton, Kristin Eileen.
Civilizing Chengdu : Chinese urban reform, r895-1937 I Kristin Stapleton.
p. em. --(Harvard East Asian monographs ; r86)
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN o-674-00246-6 (alk. paper)
r. Urbanization--China--Chengdu. 2. City planning--China--Chengdu. 3·
China--History--20th century. I. Title: Chinese urban reform, !895-1937· II.
Title. m. Series.
HTI47·C48 S76 2000
307.I'2r6'095IJ8-dc2I
Index by the author
@ Printed on acid-free paper
Last figure below indicates year of this printing
IO 09 08 07 06 05 04 OJ 02 OI 00
An earlier version of Chapter 7 appeared as "Yang Sen in Chengdu: Urban Planning
in the Interior," in Joseph W. Esherick, ed., Remaking the Chinese City: Modernity
and National Identity, 1900-1950 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999),
9Q-I04•
CIVILIZING CHENGDU
Harvard East Asian Monographs, r86
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To Jiang Mengbi ~~iS (1919- )
*
and the memory of Li Jieren 5}] A (189I-1962)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research on which this book is based was supported by the
Committee on Scholarly Communication with China, the Harvard
University History Department, the NCR Foundation, the Univer
sity of Kentucky Research Foundation, and the National Endowment
for the Humanities. For their invaluable assistance, I would like to
thank the archivists at the First and Second Historical Archives and
the Sichuan Provincial Archives and Chengdu Municipal Archives in
the People's Republic of China, as well as at the Academia Sinica
and Academia Historica in Taiwan and the United Church Archives
in Toronto.
Many teachers and friends have commented on this project over
the years. I am particularly grateful to Philip A Kuhn, Mary Backus
Rankin, William C. Kirby, Jerome Chen, David Strand, Joseph W.
Esherick, Christopher Reed, Judy Wyman, Di Wang, Nancy Park,
Tom Stapleton, Lee Mcisaac, Mingzheng Shi, Andrea McElderry,
and my colleagues in the Department of History of the University of
Kentucky. Dick Gilbreath of the University of Kentucky Cartogra
phy Lab designed the maps. Gregory Epp helped see the project
through in many ways.
This book is dedicated to two natives of Chengdu-a novelist
whose fiction is itself a tribute to the city and the friend who did
more than anyone else to acquaint me with its history.
K.S.

CONTENTS
Maps and Figures
X1
Introduction
I
I Late Imperial. Chengdu, Provincial. City II
Chengdu as a Premodern Chinese City 13/ Particularities of
Chengdu's History and Geography 23/ Chengdu as a Pro
vincial City z8/ Governing Chengdu in the Late Qing 34
2 Nation Building and the City, r895-19II
The Background of the New Policies: Imperialism and Inter
nal Unrest 49/ The Place of Cities in the Theory of the Late
Qing Reforms 55/ The Place of Provincial Cities in the
Implementation of the New Policies 63/ Zhou Shanpei:
Chengdu's Confucian Technocrat 67
3 The Key to Urban Reform: The New Police 77
The Chengdu Force: Officers and Constables So/ Police
Commissioners and Street Headmen 95/ Policing the
Streets 99/ Local Reaction to the Force 107
4 The Winds of Progress: The Late Qing Urban
Reform Agenda III
Chengdu's Reform Community u3/ Chengdu's Receptivity
to Change n7/ The Police Program: Beggars, Prostitutes,
and Public Health xzs/ State-Supervised Self-regulation:
New Urban Bureaucracies and Associations 139/ The Urban
Landscape 144